Broadening Neoclassical Human Capital Theory for the Attainment of Integral Human Development

Articles

Abstract

Broadening neoclassical human capital theory involves reviewing and discussing its assumptions, methods, and aims. As integral human development is driven by human capital, social capital (SC), personalist capital (PerC), and material wellbeing, the neoclassical analysis of the connection between human capital and material well-being needs to be extended to the connection between human capital and social capital as well as to the connection between human capital and personalist capital. This enlargement cannot be carried out through mathematical instruments because SC and PerC are qualitative elements. Personalist economics replaces the anthropological paradigm of the homo economicus with that of the acting person and argues for the valorization of human capital within a free-market economy regulated by moral principles. The result is a new personalist theory that although less elegant and formally sophisticated than the neoclassical theory is nevertheless better able to identify the multidimensional aspects characterizing the attainment of integral human development.